The Three Emperors

[Gheluvelt]

...Three cousins, three Empires, and the road to World War One.

A quick recommendation for this book, which I had for Christmas. Very well written, highly readable account of the three cousins, Tsar Nicholas, King George V, and Kaiser Wilhelm.

The phases of their lives, and influences are examined in detail, along with the extreme contrasts of the initial strong bonds and Anglophilia, leading to distrust, and increasing isolation created by their position and personalities. Also contained is the (to me) revealing portrait of Queen Victoria's pulling of the strings throughout various Monarchies, and her absolute determination to keep everything "within the family". The "family" however became increasingly out of step with the changing world, and the book lays bare, the foibles, pettiness and obsessions of the three cousins (and indeed the extended European monarchy, leading to the murder of one, the abdication of another and a nasty piece of self-serving betrayal by the third.